Journalists from 24 countries marvel at Xinjiang's development during onsite visit

A group of 26 journalists representing media outlets from 24 countries and regions embarked on a 7-day tour of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to gain firsthand insights into the region's economic and social development, as well as its rich history and culture.

The "China Up Close: Xinjiang" tour, jointly organized by the China Media Group (CMG), the China International Media Exchange, and the Publicity Department of the Party Committee of China Media Group, commenced on June 20 and will conclude on June 26.

The journalists are divided into two groups to cover both northern and southern Xinjiang, allowing them to experience the region's diverse landscapes and cultural heritage.

The northern tour group on Friday morning successively visited the Khorgos port on the China-Kazakhstan border and the Ili General's Mansion in Huocheng County of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, learning about the thriving trade exchanges between the two countries and the heroic stories of this historic border town.

Ili General's Mansion was the camp where the Ili generals worked and stayed during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).

In the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), Ili General was established to preside over military and political affairs in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Forty-two generals have served here for 60 terms.

"This is my first time visiting Xinjiang. The city here is very beautiful. We are now at the border crossing, which is of great importance for trade relations between China, Central Asia and Europe. We will also visit other places, including many mosques and a lake. I am very excited to learn more about this beautiful city," said Reem Hani, a correspondent for the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Meanwhile, the delegation to southern Xinjiang also began their tour of the ancient city of Kashgar on Friday.

Their itinerary included the Kashgar Area of China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, a display and trading center for cross-border e-commerce goods, an agricultural technology company, and the Id Kah Mosque which was listed as a key national cultural relics unit in 2001.

"I come from Hungary and this is my first time in Xinjiang. And so far I travel to many places in China, but never something like that in Xinjiang. Before I came in here, I read about the history and what major role it's played to the silk road. But it's good to see that it's playing another new and prosperous role in the new belt and road initiative and connecting with Europe and with the neighboring country. It's pretty fantastic so far," said Marton Bonifac Brem-Nagy, a correspondent for the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap.

The tour will also take the media delegation to visit other key destinations in the region, such as Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Aksu, and Urumqi.

Through their respective media platforms, the foreign journalists will share their firsthand accounts and reports, showcasing the region's progress, openness, and cultural richness.

The media delegation will also cover the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Eurasia Expo, which is scheduled to be held from June 26 to 30 in Xinjiang.

Journalists from 24 countries marvel at Xinjiang's development during onsite visit

The China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) has launched the establishment of a database of natural sounds within urban areas this year, aiming to help manage urban noise pollution by more accurately identifying and differentiating natural sounds from artificial noises.

China plans to build a unified national network for automatically monitoring acoustic environmental quality starting on January 1, 2025. The system will focus on monitoring urban man-made noises, but at the same time, it will also unavoidably include natural sounds from birds and insects, as well as the rustling of wind and rain. These natural sounds could affect the accuracy of noise assessments, so it is necessary to collect them in a database so as to better identify and classify different types of noise. By the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, local environmental monitoring professionals used specific equipment to capture various sounds within a wetland park. They collected sounds from birds, insects, and frogs, along with natural noises like rain, thunder, and wind. These sounds could potentially influence the monitoring results of urban acoustic environmental quality.

They recorded sounds for at least two hours at each monitoring location. They then used specialized software to analyze these recordings, selecting the clearer and less disrupted natural sounds to upload them into the database.

"The natural sounds in this recording are relatively clear and distinct, and the background noise is relatively low, so it is valid. But look at the waveform of this recording, the bird or insect sounds are unclear, and the environmental noise is relatively loud. Based on these two criteria, this recording is invalid," said He Fanyu, an engineer at the Yunnan Ecological and Environment Monitoring Center.

Since the first quarter of this year, the CNEMC has organized local environmental monitoring stations to record natural sounds in urban areas of over 80 cities. As of now, more than 420,000 raw recordings have been made, with 80,000 of them being valid. By the end of the year, it is expected that 600,000 valid recordings will have been collected nationwide for the development of China's largest noise database.

"After the database is built, our next step is to train and test an intelligent sound recognition model. It will help us not only to check if noise levels exceed allowed limits but also to identify where the excess noise is coming from. For example, construction noise is temporary and highly variable, so it requires specific management, especially during nighttime," said Wang Yun, a senior engineer at the Physics Department of the CNEMC.

China developing natural sound database to better tackle urban noise pollution